Wednesday, 15 February 2017

Demonetisation and Non Resident (Gujarati) Indians.

Being a
Gujarati, the issues affecting Non Resident Indians affect me particularly
because Gujaratis, for being better placed geographically have a long history in
foreign soils, trade and travels. To get
an idea of the extent of trade and travels from Gujarat, I quote a paragraph
from the book, ‘the shaping of modern Gujarat’, by Achyutbhai Yagnik and
Suchitra Sheth as follows:

‘...Gujarat’s
strategic location within Asia and its ports along the northern centre of the
Indian Ocean placed it at the interaction of a number of trading sections and
proved propitious to Gujarati merchants. They profited from the overland interregional
trade of Asia across the subcontinent and within the western region. But their
greatest wealth came from maritime trade, both along the coast and across the
seas in ships propelled eastwards and westwards by the monsoon winds. One
quarter of India’s coastline is in Gujarat...Silk from China, horses from
Arabia, ivory and slaves from Africa, cloth and indigo from Gujarat itself,
opium and grain from the north, spices from southern India and the Far East, to name just a few
commodities passed through these ports for centuries. Local communities of skilled ship builders, navigators
and craftspeople contributed to the prosperity of enterprising merchants and
traders. The sweep of this maritime network is summed up by Tome Piers, a
fifteenth century Portuguese traveller: ‘Cambay [i.e. Gujarat] chiefly stretches
out two arms, with her right arm she reaches out towards Aden and with the
other towards Malacca...”...Gujarati Merchants travelled to West Asia, Africa,
South India and eastern edges of the Indian Ocean, creating a diaspora
consisting of kith and kin networks in the ports of Indian Ocean
littoral...Maritime activity goes back almost four millennia to the days of Indus
valley civilization...”

The spread
of Gujarati community across the globe has been so vast that there is a popular saying in Gujarati- ‘Jya na pohche
koi, tya pohche eek Gujarati’. This means, where no one reaches, it is there
that a Gujarati will reach! Gujarati business, trade and travels far and wide has
also greatly influenced Gujarati
literature and some of the famous writers have based many of their novels and poems on such travels across the seas such as, ‘dariyalal, haji
kasam tari vijli, dariya na khole, mehraman no mobhi’, and so on.

The non
resident Gujaratis settled all over the world therefore have had far reaching influence
and impact on the life and economy of Gujarat for several centuries now.

Like every
Gujarati, Mr. Narendra Modi is well aware of this fact and is also aware of
the extent of the spread and clout of the Indian as well as the Gujarati community
across the globe. Hence, soon after becoming the Prime Minister of India, while
travelling across the world, Mr. Modi when was given overwhelming welcome by
NRIs in general and Gujarati NRIs in particular, these events were highly publicized
to his great advantage back home.

Therefore
when in November 2016, Mr. Modi announced demonetization, I was sure that
proper planning and arrangements must have been made at least for the NRIs to
convert the old currency notes unlike the mess the resident Indians had to
suffer. However I was in for a rude shock.

Photo Source: Wikipedia

As per
Government rules, NRIs can carry up to Rs 25,000/- in Indian currency out of
India. So, soon after demonetization when some of my close relatives living
abroad asked me what should they do with their old 500 and 1000 notes, I was confident
and advised them that the Indian embassy or the consulate would most certainly
have made some arrangement for the exchange of old notes. Besides, most big
cities across the world would also have Indian banks and I thought the Indian
Embassy would have tied up with them for the exchange of legitimate money in
old currency with the NRIs. This seemed to me a logical plan and arrangement because
I know of some NRIs who had just left India before the demonetization was announced
and were not likely to return in the near future- certainly not before the (revised) deadline
of June 31st declared by the Government for the exchange of old notes remaining with NRIs.

However I
was reported by my relatives that there is no such arrangement in place! I
therefore advised that the next best thing would be to send the old notes with
any relative travelling to India during the short window period where the old
notes could be exchanges [up to June 31st in case of NRIs]. Here
again I was in for a shock! The rules laid down by the RBI are such that only
an Indian passport holder can bring in the old currency which has to be
declared at the customs at the airport, the customs have to issue a certificate
on arrival through red channel which would then have to be submitted at the time of exchange
of the notes[1] at the RBI.

This again I think
is totally impractical. I know of many NRIs who have retained their Indian
Passport but their spouse or children have not. I also know of NRIs who
themselves are not travelling to India before 31st June but their spouse or children are. However even if a spouse of an NRI or his/her children
are travelling to India during the short window period till 31st
June granted to exchange old notes, they are not authorized to bring in
the old notes for exchange, even if the notes are legitimately in
possession of an NRI and the person carrying the notes may have a POI
card!

Besides,
these old notes can be exchanged only in select five RBI branches of the
country- Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Nagpur. I know of non resident
Gujaratis who land only at Ahmedabad international airport these days. No facility
is made available to them for the exchange of old notes in the Reserve Bank of
India branch located in Ahmedabad. Therefore
a non resident Gujarati travelling for a few days to India has to make a special
trip to one of these cities to be able to exchange their old notes of the value
of up to Rs 25,000/-!

People in queue at the Reserve Bank of India to exchange old currency notes after demonetization. Photo Source: Hindustan Times.

Considering
all of this, I know of a few close relatives both Gujaratis and Non Gujaratis
living abroad who are at a complete loss as to what to do with their old notes.
It is also very hard for them to dispose of the old currency as after all, this
is hard earned money and while it may not be much in terms of economic value,
it is after all considered Laxmi by many Indians in general and most certainly by
Gujaratis in particular.

While I have
personally gone through inconvenience on account of bad planning of demonetization,
some among my family and relatives living aboard have actually lost legitimate-hard
earned money for no fault of theirs.

I wonder how
much of the money in old notes not yet recovered still remains with NRIs and
how much of it will go down the drain in spite of it being legitimate due to
bad planning by the Government? I don’t think the Government cares to know
really.

End

PS: The
Government has been changing rules concerning demonetization. Therefore if I
have missed any new rule or have not understood the rules clearly and if there is any easy way of exchanging legitimate
old currency notes lying with NRIs, kindly share. Thanks.

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About Me

After having passed Masters in Social Work in the year 1987 Nandini Oza has worked as a social and political activist for over two decades in Non Government Organisations and people’s movements. After 2002, she worked as a lecturer in the Government College in Badwani, Madhya Pradesh teaching the post graduate course in social work for two years. However since 2004, her primary interest and focus has been on writing. Her writings are focussed on social and political analysis and commentary as well as on contemporary history. She remains a student of social and political change and her writing draws considerably from this as well as her earlier work as an activist. She writes both, fiction and non-fiction, believes that social media is an important medium in today’s times and uses it meaningfully. Nandini Oza's first book titled, "Whither Justice- Stories of Women in Prison", was published by Rupa in the year 2016. This was translated in the year 2012 and published in Marathi by Mehta Publishing house. Rupa recently made the book available in kindle edition. Oza's next book titled, 'Ladha Narmadecha', has been recently (July 2017) published by Rajhans Prakashan in Marathi.